Senator Chuck Grassley commented this morning (Thursday) on his disappointment with the Obama administration for rejecting Governor Terry Branstad’s request for a disaster declaration on the Avian Flu outbreak.
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But experts like Clifford say the disease could bounce back at any moment, especially as the fall migration of birds picks up. He says those in attendance heard from one Iowa producer who lost two-thirds of his birds to the disease, and he is not alone.
The USDA has investigated vaccinations, he said, but none has proven effective to the current H5N2 strain that has hit Midwest poultry farms.
Clifford said the agency learned from the those issues to implement the new policies.
Farmers and poultry representatives from the state’s top egg producing states addressed the committee, including U.S. Sen.
The USDA is aiming to assign one person to communicate with each infected farm during the entire time the facility is affected by the deadly virus, John Clifford, the chief USA veterinary officer, said at a U.S. Senate Agriculture Committee hearing on Tuesday.
“The crippling impact of the avian flu has devastated Iowa’s poultry industry, farmers, producers and local communities”, Ernst said during a telephone news conference this morning with Iowa reporters.
While the outbreak has disrupted egg supplies and led to higher egg and roasting turkey prices, it has actually resulted in cheaper chicken-meat prices because many other countries have imposed import restrictions, the USDA said in a separate report last month.
Clifford said that the USDA plans to give advice about improving biosecurity. “What we have done successfully for years clearly needs to be revisited”.
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More than 7.5 million turkeys have been killed by highly pathogenic avian influenza or culled to control its spread since December, according to USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The samples will be taken mostly from ducks shot by hunters, but also from live-caught birds, fecal samples collected from waterfowl habitats and a wide variety of wild birds that are found dead.
